What Germany Thinks of Obama

You know when you are in a relationship, and all of your friends know that it is a bad relationship, but you keep thinking "gee, its not that bad." Well, in this case, that friend hated your ex, I mean really, really, hated your ex. And was so incredibly happy that you got your new special friend that they held national rallies. Yes, national rallies, just for you.

But now, two years later, the shine is gone. Now your friend is saying things like "Two years ago [their] vision inspired [friends]. Today the same [person] often sounds strangely bloodless. Back then [their] cool, self-assured composure impressed many, now the same character comes across as cold, arrogant, even elitist. The [people who dont like him] may well put on a shrill rough performance, and stand in the media spotlight. However, this [special friend] was never going to win [support] [from the people who dont like him] anyway. [The special friend's] historic victory in 2008 was created by the middle of [your heart and mind]-- the independent [cells] and the [other kind of similar neurons]. It is this center that has abandoned him."

And it turns out that this is your friend in a good mood. In a bad mood he thinks your friend is a money-spending, achievement-hating, no-good home-wrecker, just like the idiot they dumped not that long ago.

And yes, in our little story, Obama is your special friend (ugh), and your real friend is Germany - who is coming around to the opinion that Obama is an idiot. The "good mood" was actually one of Germany's major left-of-center newspapers. Which means... yeah... the right-of-center is not really such a big fan of Obama. He still has much higher approval ratings in Germany than over here (maybe he could run for office there... it would be a lot better for us to just get rid of him...) but they are slowly coming around to the opinion that yes, Obama is a dumb dumb.

by the way, this is the original quote...

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Europeans have to understand that America is different, and that means it is also different from how they would like it to be. And secondly any autopsy of the Democrats' massive defeat on Tuesday shows that the right did not prevail simply due to their own strength. This was a collapse of the Obama coalition -- because the president has lost the support of America's middle class."

"In Western Europe Obama still enjoys almost messianic approval ratings of 80 percent. Nowhere else on earth regards Obama's program as more self-evident. Reforms such as health insurance for all, an active state and more environmental and climate protection are seen as catch-up Europeanization, a simple normalization. Millions of Americans, on the other hand, see this as an audacious if not revolutionary agenda to serve the interests of the state."

"The fact that Obama's new state is too slow and has produced too few successes has also been politically disastrous. More than $800 billion (€ 562 billion) was supposed to stimulate the economy -- but the unemployment rate has stagnated at almost 10 percent. And while state money has saved Wall Street and the auto industry from bankruptcy, this year alone sees one million families facing the prospect of losing their homes."

"Two years ago his vision inspired voters. Today the same man often sounds strangely bloodless. Back then his cool, self-assured composure impressed many, now the same character comes across as cold, arrogant, even elitist. The right may well put on a shrill rough performance, and stand in the media spotlight. However, this president was never going to win votes on the right anyway. Obama's historic victory in 2008 was created by the middle of American society -- the independent voters and the suburbanites. It is this center that has abandoned him."